1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to an apparatus and method for routing communication signals from a source device to a destination device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional networks require routers and switches to process full destination addresses in order to route communication signals to a destination device. Buffers within the routers and switches that queue the communication signals must account for the full destination addresses of communication traffic that circulates through the routers and switches. The routers and switches must process all incoming traffic regardless of its destination and must process each element of the entire address of each incoming communication signal. Thus, the routers and switches must perform global routing on every communication signal that is received. Furthermore, the routers and switches must know the entire topology of the network in order to route each of the incoming communication signals. Thus, high volume communication signals destined to one address may become a bottleneck to low volume communication signals destined to another address. Therefore, there is a need for new technology to relieve such bottleneck conditions and to generally improve communication network efficiency.